El institucionalismo económico: Identidad de un movimiento disidente (1899-1939)

Abstract

La trayectoria, tan rica y diversa del institucionalismo, es un caso de estudio que interroga al historiador del pensamiento económico y le plantea dilemas poco fáciles de resolver sobre su reconstrucción historiográfica. Desde una perspectiva de contextos de la actividad científica se ha buscado una integración de aspectos externos e internos de la corriente. Esta labor permite identificar los factores ambientales de la corriente y las influencias recibidas en su origen. Se demuestra que el institucionalismo económico en su fase temprana (1899-1939), se constituyó en un movimiento con identidad propia y vinculada a los debates generados en el ámbito de la American Economic Association. Se sostiene que la trayectoria del institucionalismo original, debe ser interpretada bajo la figura de un movimiento económico. Se concluye que este último posee rasgos de disidencia frente a la corriente principal de la ciencia económica.

The path of institutionalism, as rich as it is diverse, is a case study that interrogates economic historians and confronts them with dilemmas, which are usually not easy to resolve in a reconstructible historical perspective. Using a perspective of scientific contexts, it has been sought the integration of external and internal influences on this stream of thought. This work identifies the environmental factors of the school and how each one influences its origin. We show that economic institutionalism in its early phase (1899-1939) became a movement with its own identity as well as was linked to the debates generated in the context of the “American Economic Association”. The article argues that the trajectory of the original institutionalism must be interpreted within the framework of an economic movement. The authors conclude that the latter showed characteristics of dissent from mainstream economics in this period of history.